The process by which the optimal decision may be reached for any patient at a crossroads is called shared decision making. According to the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation, shared decision making is a collaborative process that allows patients and their providers to make healthcare decisions together, taking into account the best scientific evidence available, as well as the patient's values and preferences. Despite a wealth of endorsements and research on shared decision making, little work has been done specific to the emergency department (ED) setting. Shared decision making in emergency medicine has the potential to improve the quality, safety, and outcomes for ED patients. As the ED is the gateway to medical care for patients with a variety of illnesses and injuries, ED shared decision making is relevant to numerous healthcare disciplines. We propose a detailed one-day conference to define and develop a high-priority, timely research agenda. The 2016 Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) consensus conference, Shared Decision Making in the Emergency Department: Development of a Policy-Relevant Patient-Centered Research Agenda, is expected to help fill this void. AEM has successfully sponsored 15 previous consensus conferences focused on the intersection of practice and research around key topics in emergency medicine. Aligned with the mission of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of healthcare, this research development conference will convene major thought leaders and necessary stakeholders to develop a research agenda for shared decision making in acute care. Specifically, the conference will include patients, patient representatives from national advocacy organizations, emergency physicians, nurses, and researchers with expertise in shared decision making, patient-centered outcomes research, comparative effectiveness research, and health information technology. The specific aims of this conference are to: 1) critically examine the state of science on shared decision making in emergency medicine, and identify opportunities, limitations, and gaps in knowledge and methodology; 2) develop a consensus statement that prioritizes opportunities for research in shared decision making that will change practice, and identify the most effective methodological approaches; and 3) Identify and build collaborative research networks among patients, investigators, and other key stakeholders to study the use of shared decision making in emergency medicine using a patient-centered model of care that will be competitive for federal funding.